Fifteenth Sunday of the Year 2020

When Jesus is with people something always important is happening. He uses their language to communicate something about God and about ourselves. Jesus refers to the openness of heart to the message of God’s reign with various descriptions of soil. We often ask Who is the sower? God? Yes. Jesus? There probably is no right or wrong answer except that God is always sowing life in ours. St. Paul today says, ‘The Spirit of God dwells in you’ (Romans 8:9, 11). Without minimising God and Jesus here, we might need to expand and enlarge the possibilities so that the words of scripture might be given great chance to take root in our lives, to bloom in new ways, and to grow into something we never before imagined or thought possible.

Fourteen Sunday of the Year 2020

The strong counter-cultural message today takes one’s thoughts to those who benefit from a well off society. Jesus was not addressing the healthy, well off, gifted, employed, and comfortably situated in life but those who in any way shackled to systems and oppress. His words become a mockery for those for whom his message was intended if little was done to ease these burdens. More importantly Jesus words challenge us to look at our values and the world where power and control are often of prime importance.

Sandreen

Sandreen is one of the young refugees we have been working with over the past two years as part of the Edmund Rice Centre's Refugee Mentoring Program.